Quest For Freedom
by ThunderJJ
Summary: Once upon a time, the Pokemon of the Pokemon Universe lived in peace with each other. Everything was cool and calm. One day though, a wicked and corrupt Darkrai consumed the world with evil, leaving the once peaceful place in ruins. Now it is up to a bunch of 'fated' heroes to save the Pokemon Universe. Will they succeed?
1. Prologue

**Hello people! This is the second fanfic I've started (the first one being Pokemon World Championships).**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon in any way**

**This story will be progressing alongside my other story :) .**

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The Pokemon Universe, a vast world inhabited by only pokemon. It was a truly cheerful, lively and harmonious place, you wouldn't be able to stop smiling once your eyes were laid. Pokemon were all over the place, conversing with each other, selling items to each other, playing around with each other, and even taking happy strolls with each other. It was without a doubt, a heartwarming place to be.

One certain pokemon, a Mudkip known as Fin, was just visiting his long time pal Charcoal, an energetic Chimchar. They were chatting joyously about things, whilst also gobbling up berries and drinking up cold berry juice. The day was kind of hot so the cold berry juice was the perfect refreshment.

"And do you remember the time when we swung on those vines and hurt ourselves! That was really funny!" chirped Charcoal. "Yeah, but it hurt as well. You broke your arm and I broke my tail, don't you remember?" spoke Fin. "Yeah, and that was the funny part," laughed Charcoal. He fell down onto the floor, kicking his legs wildly in the air, having his two arms placed on top of his chest, laughing so deafeningly. He was possibly even louder than a bunch of Exploud, roaring on the top of their lungs.

Fin was shielding its ears with its legs, unable to bear with the sound. Charcoal eventually halted his laughter and picked himself back off the ground. At this time, Fin also removed his legs from his ears.

Charcoal lightly dusted himself before saying, "Now Fin..." The fire type grabbed his drink and poured some of it greedily into his mouth. He placed down the empty container that formerly held liquid. "Do you think we should do something outside?" continued Charcoal. "It is a bright sunny day after all."

"The weather outside is fairly hot..." said Fin. "But why not? We can't just sit here all day." The actual reason Fin agreed was because he didn't want to hear any more of his friends irritating laughter. You see, it didn't only happen once, it happened almost all day so far. So having a chance to escape from the torture, the water type seized it with emotional pleasure.

As the two friends stepped into the outdoors, they took deep breaths of the wonderful air around them. Fin couldn't help but smile. "Ah! Fresh air!" breathed a happy Fin. "It is fairly hot out here, I'm getting hot already..." said Charcoal while fanning himself with his hands. "Are you serious? You should be able to deal with the temperature, after all, you deal with it all the time."

Charcoal engaged himself in thinking. "Oh right...of course I do..." He sighed. The Chimchar knew just what his friend was talking about. Himself.

"Anyways, do you want to go and get some moomoo milk ice cream?" asked Fin. "I haven't had one in ages!" "Er...Fin...I don't think I can eat one..." said Charcoal. "Why not?" Fin asked, failing to see the reason. "I'm a fire type," replied Charcoal. "I'll melt the cold treat in a few seconds!" "Right..." Fin said, now seeing Charcoal's point.

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Fin and Charcoal were walking happily down the streets of town, taking their time to admire the wonderfully busy place. "You know Charcoal, just watching these people do things makes me really cheerful!" Fin spoke. "And why is this?" asked Charcoal with a raised eyebrow. "Well just look," Fin said pointing to two pokemon. They were having a merry chat, it was really obvious. The way they spoke, the way they used signs, just about everything they did showed that they were undergoing a happy conversation. "You see why now?" Fin questioned.

Charcoal opened his mouth to answer, but the sound of loud piercing screams stopped him. They both knew immediately that something was up. "What was that?" Fin turned around and started looking all over the place.

Charcoal spotted a floating pokemon, scaring a group of innocent pokemon off and making them run the other way. It was black shadow-like pokemon, with a white smoke like thing coming from its head, a red collar sort of thing, and eerie blue eyes. It just looked purely evil.

"Look at this," said Charcoal. Without looking back, Fin glanced beside himself and saw a bunch of pokemon all sprinting off one direction. He knew something big was happening. The water type turned around to see an evil looking pokemon floating above others, scaring them off. Fin's eyes grew wide in horror.

"Come on Fin, we have to get away!" shouted Charcoal above the other pokemon's screams. The fire type grabbed his friend by the fin and dragged him off running.

Ahead, Charcoal spotted another pokemon floating, scaring off others. This one was different though. A round purple like body with short arms and legs, and spikes coming from the top of its head. "There's another evil pokemon!" shouted Charcoal. "We have to run the other way!" He turned and began running the other way, but almost instantly stopped. Fin freed himself from his friend's grip and turned around. He saw the purple floating pokemon, blocking off anyone from running past him. Fin turned the other way. Another floating pokemon was blocking off the path. The pokemon in between were blocking off both sides, disallowing anyone to escape within the space they were allowing.

It was then that Fin figured out what was happening. They were being trapped.

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**Reviews anyone? (It would be helpful and thanked) :)**

**That was just the prologue of the story. The actual beginning of the story is coming.**


	2. The Escape!

**The official first chapter of this story is finished. Hope you guys enjoy it! :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon (don't now and probably never will) **

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Fin was happily walking down the streets, admiring the beautiful scene he was surrounded by. Pokemon enjoying conversations with one another, pokemon strolling around without any worry, young pokemon playing around the other young ones, everything in sight just added to the peaceful scenery.

"This is the way it should be!" remarked Fin happily to himself. He might've been roaming around the streets alone, but the happenings around him were just heart-warming. Fin couldn't stop smiling as he walked around seeing others in peace. Some of the pokemon he walked by even thought he was mental. That was how happy Fin was.

"This is the happiest place in the universe! I can't even stop smiling!" Fin spoke to himself.

The water type was just passing by a fruit stand, when with the corner of his eye, he noticed the fruit seller from behind it suddenly dematerialize and disappear. Fin quickly turned around to see an empty space was left, where that pokemon used to be. The Mudkip became quite shocked. _Why did he disappear all of a sudden? Is something wrong?_

All of a sudden, numerous other pokemon around him began dematerializing. Fin just stared frantically around himself as many of the others in view started to disappear, like the first victim, only leaving behind an empty space where they were once standing at.

Fin's eyes were wide with horror. _Why are the other pokemon disappearing all of a sudden? _He didn't know what to do. He didn't even know if there was anything he could do. All he could actually do was just watch as each and every single pokemon in sight disappeared into thin air._  
_

Eventually, all the pokemon around Fin were gone, and now it was the buildings that were beginning to vanish. _Wha? Not the buildings to...what in the world is happening?_

One by one, the constructions that once housed the disappeared pokemon met the same fate, leaving empty spaces behind like the pokemon before. Soon, all the buildings in sight had disappeared as well, leaving only Fin, the dirt ground and the black sky left. _Wait, the black sky? Wasn't just the day time a minute ago?_

Fin looked directly up into the sky. It was pitch black, even more darker and eerie-looking than the night sky without any stars. The black that the sky was coloured in with was indescribable, the best description for it was probably 'as dark as a demon's heart' assuming that their hearts were black, something which was almost certainly not going to be ever known.

Fin was paralysed by fear. Just staring up at the sky's colour sent unimaginable fear to his very heart. Who wouldn't be scared? The sky definitely did not possess it's natural shade of colour, instead being darker than most likely everything else black.

"W-why is the sky black?" the Mudkip murmured to himself. He really had no idea what was going on, all he knew was that it was something bad and probably supernatural. Like what, can science explain what's it happened to the sky? Most likely not, even if the scientist were to put all his or her focus, time and effort into figuring out the cause, it would almost be guaranteed that they would never find it.

Then, out of nowhere, a pokemon appeared out of thin air, floating in the air, its black colour almost matching the one the sky had. Aside from its dark colour, the pokemon also had a white cloud of smoke looking thing floating out from the top of its head, and red spikes of some sort attached all around its neck. The body of the pokemon, it looked very shadow-like and ghostly, having some bits of its body blowing freely with the wind, including the white cloud thingy on its head. The pokemon also had claws at the end of its slender arms. Overall, the pokemon looked like the sort of creature that would appear in your nightmare while you were sleeping.

"W-who are you?" choked out Fin. Looking at the pokemon before him, the Mudkip was shivering with fear. What kind of pokemon can appear like that out of nowhere? Other than ghost types of course, no other pokemon had that ability. Well, the dark pokemon looming in front could possibly be a ghost type, since it was unseen before now.

"Who am I?" boomed the pokemon loudly. The loud voice sent even more fear into Fin, adding to the fear he was already receiving. "You want me to tell you who I am?"

Fin gulped with fear. The pokemon before him, its voice was already scaring the poor Mudkip, just imagine how scary the thing he was about to do to Fin was...it would be terrifying.

Fin tried to muster up as much bravery he had inside of him and replied, "Yes. I want to know who you are." Fin's squeaked voice sounded as wimpy as it could get, which others would've laughed at...if anyone was there. The water type felt as if he should've just run away, but he was too scared to. Besides, this floating dark pokemon would've probably caught him if he did attempt to do so.

The dark pokemon flew forwards until he was right in front of Fin's face. The Mudkip felt as though he could've wet his pants at those moments...if he had any. "The answer is to your question is..." the pokemon spoke as he zoomed back a bit. "I am your worst nightmare!" He extended his hands, attempting to grab a hold of Fin.

It was then that Fin woke up from his nightmare, sweating from all over his face. He was panting heavily, trying to calm himself down. _Where am I now? I hope that pokemon didn't end up capturing me... _

The water type scanned the area. It was daytime, probably still morning, as evident from the half arose sun in the distance. As for his position, Fin was inside of what seemed like a prison cell, blocked in by bars of hard silver steel. Wait a minute...Fin _was_ inside a prison cell. He and his friend named Charcoal, a Chimchar, were locked up inside the confined space for about a week by now. They were captured by the evil pokemon that were now ruling over the once peaceful town, Fin's hometown. Wait...the evil pokemon...one of them was from Fin's nightmare just a minute ago.

_Hm...what was his name again? _thought Fin. He was always forgetting the name of that evil pokemon that was responsible for capturing them.

An abrupt sound of something banging onto metal loudly rung throughout the prison cell. It was so loud, the sound probably went through the nearby cells as well. Yeah, it wasn't just Fin and his buddy that were captured, there were many others too.

The noise broke Fin from his thoughts and made him look around for the cause.

"Hey Fin! Aren't you going to help me break out of this place?" asked his fire type friend. It was Charcoal that was making the noise. Fin should've known. The Chimchar, with something that looked like a sledgehammer, was utilizing the item to whack the steel bars, in an attempt to break them. The sledgehammer was probably another one of Charcoal's improvised creations to try and break out. It was made from a thick stick and a block of stone. Simply, a hole was made on the bottom of the block of stone, and then the stick was fitted into the hole.

Anyways, Charcoal was so far, just hammering the steel bars as hard as he could, trying to break them. Pft! As if that'll work! He should already be smart enough to figure out that this is just like pokemon. Rock is not very effective against steel, no matter how big the rock is compared to the steel. If the stone was big enough though, it could possibly break the steel...

The noise of heavy stone colliding onto steel just kept flying through the place as Charcoal repeatedly hit it. Charcoal's activity obviously woke up one of the pokemon from a nearby cell, because the pokemon shouted, "Charcoal, can you just give up?! What you are doing is fruitless! In fact, you might even attract the attention of one of the guards! So why don't you just stop doing what you're doing before one of the guards come here and punish you!"

Fin, knowing Charcoal, knew that his friend wouldn't listen to the voice's command. This was because Charcoal wasn't the type to ever give up. In fact, the fire type lived by the words 'If you never give up, you will achieve anything". Of course, most others saw this as proof of why Charcoal was such a reckless pokemon. Fin though, actually knew that Charcoal's 'never give up' attitude was the reason why the two of them safely got out of some things before.

**Start of Flashback**

Younger Fin and Charcoal were happily running around in their little wooden tree house. The features the construction had were a tall roof, a small window, and an entrance without a door.

"This is fun!" laughed Fin happily. He was really enjoying their current activity.

"I know right! It's really fun!" added Charcoal, who was also laughing.

Suddenly, Fin ran too close to the edge and lost his footing. The water type began falling down.

"Ahhhh!" he screamed as he began falling from a height. Fin only fell a few centimetres when he felt a hand grab onto his leg. Fin immediately stopped falling any further. The Mudkip looked up and saw who had hold of him.

"Don't worry Fin! I've got ya!" said Charcoal. "I'll pull you up now!" He tried yanking Fin back up with him, but Fin was just too heavy for him.

"You're really heavy Fin! I can't get you back up!"

"Then just let me drop! All I'll get is a couple of bruises! It's nothing much!" Fin reasoned.

"No! I will not give up! I will keep hold of you until I somehow get you back up safely! Out of all the pokemon in the world, you should know why!" Charcoal gave a smile.

**End of Flashback**

Soon after that, Charcoal did manage to get Fin back up again. That was one time Fin really appreciated Charcoal's never give up spirit.

Other times though, it was just wasted effort, like everyone else thought it was. Like in the present for example. Charcoal was just wasting his energy swinging his stick and stone at the steel bars, doing nothing at all to them.

After a while more of attempts, Charcoal stopped swinging at the prison bars, when he finally realized that he was affecting them in no way at all. The fire type dropped the hammer onto the ground and took a seat. He then engaged in deep thinking. _How will we ever get out of this prison cell? I know that there is some sort of way...I just haven't figured it out yet..._

Suddenly, an idea popped into Charcoal's head. He stood up and looked at Fin, who was just sitting around doing his own stuff.

"Hey Fin!" called Charcoal. "What if we combine our attacks and aim them at the prison bars?" Fin sighed. They've tried that about a hundred times already and every single time, they failed to even make a dent on the metal bars. How's trying again going to give a different result? Well...Fin knew that Charcoal was expecting a different result.

Sometimes, Fin would wonder if his friend even had a brain. How the Chimchar did things or thought about things sometimes would make you say 'He is really stupid' whilst shaking your head side to side.

"Um...are you even listening Fin?" asked Charcoal, waving his hand very close in front of his face. This snapped Fin out of his thoughts and gave him a little scare. Charcoal's hands were really close to Fin's face. Maybe about two millimetres away? "Let's combine our attacks to break the metal bars."

"I'm not doing it Charcoal! We've already tried about a hundred times, and we've done nothing to the metal bars! We didn't even leave marks on them!"

Charcoal knew that what Fin had just said was the truth. Over the past week while they were trapped in the prison cell, the two friends have tried many times to combine attacks and attempt to break out, but every single time just ended up the same: failure.

"What if this time is different?" said Charcoal. "I know that this time we'll be able to break out! Come on Fin! Please! You know we'll never get out if it's only me trying!"

Fin looked up to decline his friend's idea, but when he stared into his eyes...it was full of determination, desperateness and sadness, all mixed up together like ingredients in a cooking pot. Fin didn't really know how those emotions could go together, but they did in Charcoal. It was easily noticeable in his eyes.

Fin sighed. _Maybe I should just try...at least it wouldn't be me that'll shatter his hopes...not that they'll shatter, but just in case. _Fin nodded to his friend. "Alright, let's combine attacks and try to break out...again..."

Charcoal bounced up in joy. "Yeah! Let's do this thing!" He punched the air in enthusiasm. Just watching his friend smile made Fin smile as well. _Who knows, maybe it will work this time!_

"Alright Fin, I'll use Flamethrower and you'll use Hydro Pump! How does that sound?" Charcoal was asking for his water type friend's approval of moves. "Ha! Sounds great to me!" replied Fin. The Mudkip then wondered. _Which bars are we going to try and break? There are two. _Fin took a glance at the bars that led to a hallway. He then took a glance at the ones high up the back wall, which led to the outside world.

Just looking at the lush green grass outside, made Fin really yearn to get out of the prison cell. It was then that Fin decided with steel-like determination. He was going to try and break out of this prison, no matter what. Even if it would keep him awake all night, even if it would keep him awake all day, he was going to get out.

Fin then remembered that he was going to ask his friend a question. "Charcoal, which set of bars are we aiming for here?"

Charcoal took a glance at both sets of metal bars. "That one!" the fire type pointed. "The one that leads to the outside." Fin mentally did handstand out of joy...or a legstand in Fin's case.

The two friends positioned themselves so that they could get a clear straight shot at the steel bars.

"Ok Fin, are you ready?" asked Charcoal. Fin nodded. "I'm ready alright!" He then smiled. Of course, Fin didn't expect to break through those metal bars, but wouldn't be good if he did? Of course it would be. After being stuck inside a small prison cell and finally having enough, it would be just great if they broke through the bars.

"Alright then Fin, let's use our attacks full power!" Both pokemon took in a deep breath, holding it in. They were going to use full power all right.

As if they've been practicing this, the two friends unleashed their respective attacks at the exact same time. The powerful streams of fire and water came together and became one: a hybrid attack. It looked absolutely awesome, the blue water and the orange fire combined into one beautiful yet, powerful move.

The combined attack soon hit the metal bars, and an explosion took place. Thick grey smoke was thrown around all over the place, making it impossible to see what has happened. All that was seen was grey. It also smelt quite smoky, almost making Fin cough.

The sound of the explosion attracted the attention of the guards. They were heard talking to each other before their footsteps were heard, headed over to Fin and Charcoal's cell. This also proved that this attempt was a more powerful than the previous ones, due to the fact that the past attempts didn't create as much noise and certainly didn't grab the attentions of the prison guards.

"Come on smoke, just go away!" spoke Charcoal impatiently as he glanced behind. He was obviously checking to see if the guards were already behind. Luckily, they weren't, although their approaching footsteps were still heard. The guards weren't already there, but they were coming fast.

"Hurry up smoke! Before the guards come and get us!" cried Charcoal. He was getting increasingly more impatient by the second. The fire type might even burst in a few seconds.

Positively, that didn't end up happening. Charcoal never burst. What was also positive was that the grey smoke cleared off, revealing to the duo broken metal bars. Fin and Charcoal were doing a series of somersaults mentally. They couldn't believe it. They finally, after many attempts at the metal bars, destroyed them, leaving a hole just big enough for each of the two to fit through. They were going to make it out. For sure.

Only one worry was on their mind though. The duo had to get out before the guards came. "Come on Fin! Let's finally make our escape!" Chimchar could barely contain himself.

Fin had something else in mind though. It was about the other prisoners. Shouldn't the two of them break the others free as well? Fin didn't really like the thought of leaving them behind, letting them suffer some more in the small prisons.

"Charcoal, don't you think that we should help the others out too?" asked Fin. "We don't want them to suffer here as well." The Mudkip knew that with each second that passed by, their chances of escaping were quickly being narrowed, but he felt as though he needed to ask the question. Fin thought that they should at least try.

Charcoal though, shook his head in response to his friend's request. He clearly didn't agree with Fin there. "Come on Fin, just think. We have been trying to break free from this prison cell for the whole week, and all the others have been doing is telling us to give up. Do you think we should help free them after that? Besides Fin, this might be our only chance at escape. If we blow this up, who knows when we'll get another opportunity like this?"

Fin hated it but Charcoal was right. They've been trying everyday throughout the whole week to escape from their confinement, and all the others have been doing were telling them that it was futile and that they should've just give up. Well guess what? Because of Charcoal's 'never give up' attitude, they opened themselves out an escape route. It's times like these when Fin was glad that Charcoal has his attitude.

The running footsteps of the guards were getting louder. They must've been about seven prison cells away now. Also at this time, alarms situated all around the building began blaring.

This told Fin that there was no more time to just stand around. "Ok Charcoal! Let's go now!" nodded Fin. All Charcoal did was smile. The two jumped up and squeezed themselves through the escape route, one by one.

"We've made it! We're finally outside!" said Charcoal. Fin was also glad that the two of them have made it outside. Just getting outside though, their escape wasn't over. The alarms have been sounded, and a search party was probably being dispatched to find the broken out duo.

"Come on Charcoal! We still have to get out of here!" said Fin. "They can still get us you know!"

The guards appeared at the prison cell, and saw that it was empty. They looked up and saw that the bars blocking off the window were now destroyed. Through the window, the group of guards spotted Fin and Charcoal.

"There they are! Get them!" pointed one of the guards. All of the guards disappeared off, probably to go around and get to where Fin and Charcoal were. Fin thought the guards were stupid. By the time those guards get their current position, they would have already been long gone. There was a guard though, which Fin thought was the stupidest of all. That guard was an Aggron. It was squeezing its head through the small window. The same one Fin and Charcoal used to get out. The dumb Aggron was seriously trying to get through the mini hole. It was obvious that the hole was really small yet, the Aggron was trying to go through it. Fin decided that the Aggron really needed to get his brain checked. Maybe to see if it even had a brain. It probably didn't.

"Um Fin...like you said, we should really be going now," said Charcoal, pulling onto Fin's tail. "Oh, um...yeah. We should get going now. You never know if that Aggron might get through that small window." Fin began laughing out loud as the two ran off. Of course, it wouldn't have been funny if Aggron did make it through the hole, but it was the possibility of it that was funny.

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"Where are we running off to?" asked Fin as they were running through the streets of town. He was following Charcoal, so it was his friend that was deciding their route, not him.

"We're heading to my house," replied the fire type. Fin was shocked at hearing the reply. "Are you serious?! We're actually going to you're house to hide?" "No, we're just going there because I need to get something," answered Charcoal. Fin couldn't tell if his friend was being sarcastic or not, so he remained silent.

"Hey it's those fugitives!" shouted a voice from behind. Having passed by not a single pokemon throughout the run, the duo knew who those voices belonged to. They both turned their heads and looked back, to see a bunch of pokemon a fair distance away, chasing after them. Servants of that evil pokemon no doubt.

"Come on, we have to run faster!" said Fin. "Or else they'll catch us!"

The duo, having put quite some distance between them and the pursuing pokemon, have finally reached Charcoal's house.

"Now we can finally go inside and I can get the thing I need!" said Charcoal. Despite possessing the feeling that they were going to be caught if they went inside, Fin followed him anyways. They entered Charcoal's living room. It was still the same as how it was left a week ago. The television, the drawer, the bookshelf, the sofa, the coffee table, everything in the room was still in the exact same position they were in a week ago. By now, Fin thought that the house would've already been trashed and broken up. What he was seeing now certainly wasn't what he thought.

Charcoal ran up to his bookshelf and began looking through the books. If appears as if he is looking for a certain book.

Fin thought that it would take a while, so he got himself comfortable on a seat. The Mudkip was only seated for a few seconds before his friend yelled out, "I found it!"

Straight after those words, another voice was heard. "I just heard you guys speaking!" This almost made Fin's heart stop beating. Their pursuers were here, and they sounded like they were at the front door. How the followers found out where they were, it was a mystery, but there wasn't anytime to solve it. They had to get away, and fast.

"Come on Fin, let's go! Through the back door!" said Charcoal. Fin didn't even need to be told. The water type shot up from the sofa and the two started dashing through the house, headed for the back door. The pursuers heard them, and followed them out of the house through the back door.

Once outside, the duo didn't stop running. They would've been foolish to. They just kept running. Fin and Charcoal only got a few metres away from the exit, and their pursuers appeared outside. "They're there!" shouted one of them.

Fin decided to give them a Hydro Pump. He leapt into the air, turned around midair and blew out a forceful gush of water from his mouth. The blast of water was aimed at the group of gathered pursuers.

The water hit them, and soaked them all wet. While that was happening, while the pursuers couldn't see, Charcoal said, "Come on!" He was gesturing Fin to follow him. Charcoal then jumped into the bushes, with Fin following suit. This of course, made rustling noise, giving their pursuers a clue of where they were hiding.

After recovering from the water attack, one of the pursuers said, "Check the bushes. I heard the two going into one of them!" So the group split up, each of them looking through different bushes. One of them, a Granbull, decided to look through the bush that Fin and Charcoal jumped into. The Granbull knew that the duo jumped into that exact bush.

When the Granbull searched the bush, it found nothing. Nothing at all, other than leaves and twigs. Granbull confusedly frown at this, not knowing where else the two could've went off too.

"Have you found them? Anyone?" asked the Nidoking of the group. All the pokemon shook their heads. Nidoking was disappointed. "Grrr!" it grumbled. "They must've got away! Come on men, let's head back!" The bunch of pokemon cleared off and left the place.

Nidoking was wrong. Fin and Charcoal haven't gone away. They were still there. The two were just on a high up branch, on a nearby tree. They were watching everything single thing the pokemon did, from searching the bushes to going off.

Charcoal couldn't help but giggle quietly as they witnessed the group of pokemon leave.

"Now that our escape was successful, what do we do now?" asked Fin. He had wanted to be free for the last seven days, and finally getting what he's wished for, he didn't know what to do now. Their town has been taken over so he couldn't just stay.

"I know what to do!" grinned Charcoal. He held up the book that was in his arms. Fin read the cover of the book. A large text reading '_Legends and Myths of the Pokemon Universe' _was imprinted on it.

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**Reviews are welcomed (they can be praises or criticisms. Criticisms will definitely be of more help though, but if you want to praise, go ahead :) )**

**Also, I hope that you guys have enjoyed this at least a little :D**


	3. Meeting Leaf!

**The second chapter to the story is finally complete. I've been busy...**

**I couldn't think of a name for this chapter so...yeah...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon**

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Fin and Charcoal were trending along a forest route, gazing around at all the tall trees. So far, the duo haven't encountered any other pokemon yet. This lead them to assume that they all were either taken away and locked up by the 'evil pokemon' or they just simply ran off and abandoned the place for their own safeties. It was probably a little bit of both.

Anyways, Fin and Charcoal now had their mission confirmed. A mission you ask? Yes, a mission, a quest. The two decided to take on the quest after finding out that it was the only way to liberate the land from darkness. It was either try to free the land from darkness, or let the land succumb to the darkness. The latter alternative was in no way an option at all, so they had to settle with the former.

The way to save the world from evil, according to Charcoal's legends and myths book, was to gather the six power relics (Water, Fire, Grass, Flying, Fight and Dark) protected by six different corresponding guardians. After the relics were gathered, they then had to bring the relics to the gates of power, which would then (apparently) give them enough power to take down the evil lord Gloom.

A daunting task they decided to undergo no doubt, but if it were the only way to save the world from evil, they would oblige any day.

"Do you know where we're going?" asked Fin as the duo were walking.

Charcoal stopped and turned to his friend. "Can you say that again?"

"Do you know where we're going?" repeated the water type.

"Yeah. Of course I do," replied Charcoal. "Since when have I ever got us lost?"

Fin almost burst into laughter. Since when have Charcoal ever got them lost? Fin decided that the fire type probably bumped his head somewhere in the past and lost some of his memory. As if Charcoal couldn't remember all the times he's gotten them lost. He practically did so every time they went bushwalking, and they have been bushwalking countless times before. Maybe it was time to remind Charcoal of some of those moments...

"Charcoal, in case you haven't remembered, you've gotten us lost _plenty_ of times before," placing emphasis on the word 'plenty'.

"Yeah, but then I would be the one-" The duo suddenly heard some voices, and Charcoal stopped moving his mouth immediately. They were voices, voices of other pokemon gossiping amongst each other. Fin and Charcoal perked up straight, and began to listen carefully. It might've been something concerning them after all.

"I've heard that two pokemon have escaped from confinement just yesterday. Do you know anything about it?" asked a voice. That basically gave away who they were. Or at least, who they worked for. The evil lord Gloom.

"Nope. The only thing I know is that it was a Mudkip and a Chimchar that escaped," another voice replied.

On the inside, Fin began panicking. How'd pokemon from all the way out here know anything about their escape? The news was probably spread across the land. Everyone far and wide would be after them, capturing them so they could win the prize money that was most likely up for grabs.

Fin began silently praying. He was praying for Arceus' help, its help to one day, free the land of the darkness. Fin didn't want the land to stay like this, all in tatters and ruins. Fin wanted the world to come back to normal. Even if that time was going to be in fifty years, so be it, as long as this world would eventually be liberated from the evilness. Of course, he was also praying not to be caught by the two pokemon the voices they heard belonged to. Although unfortunately, the duo were spotted. How unlucky...

"There they are!" shouted a voice, not very far away. Fin and Charcoal gazed up to the voices. Standing about twenty metres away, with wicked grins on their faces, were a Scrafty and a Skuntank. "Hey! It's the two that escaped from their prison!" remarked Skuntank.

Fin was getting really scared now. What to do? All the different possibilities went through his mind...there were only like two. It was either stay and fight, or run away and maybe hide. Two very distinct options.

It seemed like Charcoal made his decision though. "I think we should run!" the fire type shouted. He began running off, as fast as he could. Not knowing what to do, Fin settled on doing the same as is fire type friend, tailing closely behind him.

They only ran several steps before Fin found himself lassoed by a rope like a horse. The piece of rope was wrapped around the Mudkip tightly, restricting most of his actions.

There was only one thing Fin could to do now. He had no choice but to struggle his way out. So the water type began thrashing about in the rope's clutch, trying with all his might to break free from the rope. Fin's efforts were failing, as he wasn't freed from the rope yet, neither was he making any major progress.

"Going somewhere?" the Scrafty taunted waving his fingers. "I don't think so. You're coming with us to collect our prize money." Like they thought, so there was a money prize to be earnt. Like many others, these guys were also obsessed with a lot of money. Haven't they ever stopped to think 'Is money really everything?'. Some pokemon actually think so. You can't blame them though, with a lot of money, you can buy anything. Well...that is anything but happiness.

Charcoal turned around to see what was holding his friend up, and saw his friend tied up by a lasso behind him. Charcoal had to do something. He couldn't just run away on his friend. They've been mates for as long as he could remember, just ditching Fin would leave him feeling like a part of him died.

"Don't worry Fin, I'll help you!" said Charcoal. He opened his mouth and fired out a flurry of red-hot sparks at the rope. He was hoping to snap the rope with the Ember attack, so his friend would be free again.

Before the attack hit the rope though, a dusky orb of shadow intercepted it and the collision of the two attacks created an explosion. It was disappointing for the Chimchar, especially how the attack almost got the rope, and how the rope remained unbroken.

_Who was that? _thought the fire type pokemon. He glanced around and saw the Skuntank with a smirk on his face. This made it really obvious that he was the one responsible for firing the sphere of shadow.

"And you! You're not going to save your friend! No way! You're just going to be captured too!" The pokemon began bursting out in laughter.

Suddenly, another voice was heard. "Oh no he isn't!" declared a feminine voice from the canopy of a nearby tree. Everyone else looked around the area to find the source of the voice. The emitter of the voice soon stepped out from behind the tree leaves, to reveal herself.

She was a pokemon. A snake-like pokemon with its body colours being green, cream and yellow. The features she had were big eyes, tiny arms and legs, and a tail that looked like a leaf of some sort.

"You guys better let them go, or you guys will soon regret it!" she spoke as she narrowed her eyes and gave Scrafty and Skuntank a glare. She looked dead serious. With a face as serious as hers, you could easily obtain the title of scariest court judge ever.

"And why would we do that?" asked Scrafty as he raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah! As if a girl could actually beat us!" added Skuntank. The two then burst out in crazy laughter. Ha! A girl beat them? They thought it was all too funny. Since when could a female beat them? Today possibly?

Their actions just made the female angrier. More rage was flaring up inside of her, and she was making it really obvious. "Grrrr! Keep it up if you want to make me angrier!" she told. The pokemon had her teeth clenched tightly, it seemed as though she was going to burst out in anger any second now.

The Scrafty and Skuntank just continued to laugh, totally ignoring her warnings. Now that was it for the girl. She has had enough. The two psycho clowns were going down. They had just made her so angry, it wasn't even funny. Well for the Scrafty and Skuntank it was.

"That is it!" the female announced. "You two will regret laughing at me! And don't say I didn't warn you!" With that, the pokemon extended a long green vine from its back and utilized it to grab onto a tree. The pokemon then swung down from the tree and landed onto the forest ground.

The first move she pulled after landing was a powerful whip of a vine onto Skuntank's face. It caught him off guard big time. The Skuntank didn't even have anytime to react before the attack connected with his face. This left a harsh red mark on the cheeks. It really looked like it stung a lot, although it definitely wasn't enough to keep him from striking back.

The Skuntank held back his breath, probably in preparation for a huge upcoming attack. That was indeed confirmed correct as the pokemon blew out a large stream of hot fire, aimed at the newly arrived pokemon.

She just leapt to the side and avoided the attack completely. It didn't even look like the girl tried.

"You guys are such a amateurs!" she spoke. "I'm going to finish this off with my Leaf Storm attack!"

The pokemon leapt up into the air and gathered a bunch of nearby leaves around her. The massive amount of leaves surrounding the girl, she couldn't be seen now. Although, she was able to be seen again once the flurry of leaves were launched off at the two villains.

Skuntank was too shocked by the mass amount of leaves that he didn't even think of dodging, and Scrafty attempted to block itself with his own arms. He was pretty dumb if he ever thought that would fend off the attack.

The leaves hit the two pokemon, blasting them off a few metres backwards, landing back onto the ground with swirls as eyes. That gave them the information that those two weren't coming back up to fight. Not for a while at least.

The female walked up to Fin and freed him from the constricting rope.

For Fin, it felt like heaven to be fully mobile again. The rope was really starting to squeeze the life out of him.

Charcoal was just standing there like a statue, awestruck.

"That was totally awesome!" he yelled out. "You kicked their butts like they were nothing!"

"That's because they were nothing..." said the snake-like pokemon. "Those two were so easy, I wasn't even close to breaking one single drop of sweat!"

Charcoal was about to say something else but Fin spoke first. "So what's your name Ms Hotshot?" he asked, sounding a bit playful.

"Ms Hotshot? Never heard of that one before..." she replied. "Anyways, my name is Leaf, and I'm a Snivy." She placed a vine onto her chest proudly.

"A Snivy huh? They've been known to be agile pokemon," mused Fin.

"That's so cool! No wonder you were able to beat those two no good pokemon up so easily!" said Charcoal.

"Maybe..." Moments of silence soon followed. "Well, I'll be going now. Take care of yourselves." The Snivy extended out a vine from her back and grabbed onto a tree branch with it.

"But wait-" Charcoal and Fin only watched as the Snivy hoisted herself back onto a tree canopy and disappear off to somewhere else in the forest. "We didn't even get to thank her..." mumbled Charcoal.

"Don't worry Charcoal. I don't think she wanted a thank you anyways..." said Fin. He then started to walk off. "Come on Charcoal. We need to keep going. Before those pokemon regain consciousness again," the Mudkip spoke as it turned and glanced back at its friend.

* * *

Fin and Charcoal have been walking for what seemed like hours now. They've been walking non-stop despite their tiredness, and it still seemed like they were not anywhere close to the exit of the forest. All the duo have been seeing up ahead of themselves were more trees. It was as if the forest was really huge and never ending.

"I wonder when we'll see the outside of this forest again," whined Charcoal. "We've been walking for Arceus knows how long, and we still see trees all around us. I want to get out of here."

"You're such an idiot Charcoal. You're the one that said we should go through this forest and now you're the one that's complaining," said Fin.

"I wouldn't have said so if I knew this forest was this vast..." Charcoal stared up into the skies. Up above, it was an orange sort of colour that filled the skies now. This was a sign that it was getting late. "And it's sunset already..."

"It is?!" exclaimed Fin, surprised. The water type took a glance up at the skies. His friend was indeed correct. "Your right Charcoal. It's getting late. I think we should find a place to sleep now."

Charcoal glanced around the forest and through the trees, spotted a forest clearing with a wooden cottage in the center. It was tiny, with a square window, an old looking door, a front gate, and a chimney with puffing smoke coming out. A warm and cozy looking cottage from the outside.

The Chimchar was bouncing up and down with joy. "Fin look! I found a cottage! Maybe we can ask the owner if we could sleep there tonight," Charcoal pointed.

Fin looked towards the pointed direction and saw a cottage. A question also arose in the back of his mind. Would the owners let them stay there? After all, letting strangers come over and sleep for a night sounded a bit...dangerous.

"Charcoal-" Fin didn't finish his sentence and his friend was already running to the cottage. "Charcoal..." The Mudkip was thinking. What if that cottage belonged to those two pokemon they saw earlier? If so, they would probably never see daylight again.

"Wait up Charcoal! We don't even know who lives there!" shouted Fin. Charcoal ignored his friend completely and just kept running on. "Why does Charcoal have to be like this?" sighed Fin to himself. He then ran after his fire type friend.

* * *

"Wait Charcoal!" shouted Fin as he stepped into the forest clearing, the one with the wooden cottage in it. He looked around and saw his friend standing in front of the cottage door, staring up at the cottage before him.

Fin sighed in relief. _At least Charcoal hasn't gone in yet..._

The Mudkip walked through the already open front gates, and joined his friend at the front door. "Do you know if anyone is home yet?"

Charcoal shook his head. "I've knocked the door about ten times already and still no one has opened it." Charcoal was really considering in his mind to just barge into the cottage. Doing that would be just plain rude though, so he decided against it.

"Maybe the owner of this cottage isn't home right now," suggested Fin. That seemed rather realistic but considering that smoke was ascending from the chimney, maybe the owner couldn't hear the knock. The Mudkip highly doubted that; it was Charcoal that knocked onto the door. He knew that he knocked onto doors really loudly.

"The owner is home. We just haven't seen them yet," said Charcoal. "I'm sure of it." The Chimchar hopped off to the window and cautiously peeked inside, as if he was some sort of runaway searching for any dangers nearby. Wait...that's because he was a runaway...he wasn't examining the place for any dangers though. He was looking to see if anybody was home.

The room Charcoal was peeking into hugely appealed to him. It was a beautiful kitchen. There was a huge silver fridge placed on the far end of the room, potentially big enough to fit a Snorlax or two inside. Right next to it was a seemingly thoroughly polished stove, as if it has undergone hours of cleaning. On the other side of the fridge was just a small bench-top space with a set of draws underneath. A few metres in front of that was a longer and bigger bench-top, with a fairly small sink in it. A few metres in front of that was a perfectly decorated table. A vase of flowers in the center, a tablecloth with sunflower patterns on it, and four chairs placed around the table. The kitchen of Charcoal's dreams. Wait...he looked inside to find someone, not to admire the place.

Charcoal ignored the items in the room and glanced around for any signs of life. There was none in sight.

"Do you see anyone?" asked Fin as he came beside him friend.

Charcoal shook his head without looking at his friend. "This house has no one inside..."

"Ha! We found you guys once again!" the voice sliced through the air sharply.

The duo immediately froze with fear. The voice, they knew who owned it. They didn't even need to turn back for any verification. That Scrafty and Skuntank from the afternoon, for sure. Probably back for another chance to capture the two friends and earn the money.

"You guys aren't going anywhere this time! Well, other than with us that is. We'll all go and collect the money together!" That confirmed the reason for their return. Just for the money...how much will these guys go through just for it? They might even die just to get money. Crazy idiots.

"Come on, time to round you guys up now!" Scrafty grabbed out a lasso and started twirling it into the air. He was just about to hurl the lasso, when suddenly a voice halted him.

"Stop right there!" it demanded. The familiar voice. It was Leaf the Snivy's no doubt.

A wave of relief rushed through Fin and Charcoal. They couldn't feel any safer, now that Leaf was here. It was like Arceus had given them a guardian or something, always on stand by and prepared to protect them in the face of danger.

The pokemon revealed herself from behind the shadow of the trees, confirming it was Leaf. Her figure stood tall and brave, ready for another rumble.

"Argh! Not you again!" grumbled the Skuntank angrily. _How dare that Snivy pop up again! _Skuntank also felt a bit threatened. He knew that with the grass snake pokemon around, their chances of capturing the wanted ones were mostly jeopardized.

"And who called you here?" asked the Scrafty as he tilted his head slightly and raised an eyebrow.

"I came here to get back home! It's just right there after all," the Snivy pointed. The other four turned and found what she was pointing to. The cottage.

This came as a shock to Fin and Charcoal. _Leaf owns this home? No wonder nobody was replying to the door knocks...she was still off somewhere._

"Ha! So it is!" chuckled the Scrafty. "Well if that's you're home..." Skuntank held its breath and pivoted around to face the cottage. "You're never going to see it again! We'll leave you homeless!" The Scrafty burst out in wicked laughter.

Leaf knew what they were going to do. They were going to burn her cottage down with a Flamethrower attack. Stupid cowards! She knew that she couldn't do anything about it; one attempt to move and her home was going to be reduced to residue. All there was to do was just stand by and watch with teeth clenched.

Fin feared for Leaf's home as well. He knew that trying to make a move would just end with her cottage being burnt up into ashes. As much as Fin wanted to initiate an attack, he just simply couldn't. But then he thought. They were going to burn up the cottage, even if they didn't do anything. The water type decided that he had to do something. Something swift and furtive.

An idea then popped into Fin's mind. He had a plan now; all that he needed to do now was to put it into action. _All right...here goes nothing..._breathed Fin as he cleared all thoughts of failure from his mind. Leaf has helped him and Charcoal earlier in the afternoon. Fin was determined to make it fair between them now. It was his turn to help. _Ok...Mud-Slap is first..._

The Mudkip was just about to use its tail to slap some mud, when something stopped him. A vine came out from behind the bushes and lashed Skuntank powerfully on the behind. The Skuntank jerked its head upwards due to the attack and released the held in stream of fire up into the air.

Fin knew that someone else has just come and saved the cottage's destruction. Leaf? It wasn't her because Fin saw Leaf with a face, just as surprised as his own, as well as Charcoal's and the Scrafty's. Who was it then? No one else here can attack with vines...

The vines continued its whipping assault on the Skuntank, giving the bad pokemon more painful marks on various parts of its big body.

Scrafty was looking frantically around the place, searching for the controller of the vines. He was a stupid pokemon...

Leaf soon snapped out of her surprised state and joined in on the attack. She extended out her long green vines from the back and began whipping Skuntank as well.

Fin couldn't help but feel a tad bit sorry for the pokemon under attack from the vines. It looked like pure torture, each attack made the Skuntank wince in pain and cry out painfully, each cry louder than the last. More and more red lines were just appearing on its fur, the treatment the Skuntank was receiving made Fin curse torture. On the other hand, Skuntank did deserve it for siding with evil. Fin believed that evil should never be given mercy, and an example of this 'no mercy to evil' thing was occurring right in front of him. He didn't realize this, but he also had a smile on his face.

"Hey! Don't you dare hurt my buddy!" barked Scrafty. He put his hands together and a blue ball of energy began forming in between. Focus Blast. "Take this!" The Scrafty fired the ball of energy towards Leaf.

Leaf turned her head and spotted the ball of energy flying swiftly straight at her. The Snivy's already big eyes grew even bigger in surprise. Before the attack made its mark though, a stream of fire came; it completely consumed and nullified the attack.

Fin turned his head to the direction of where the fire came from, and his eyes grew wide when he saw who was responsible for the attack. His best mate Charcoal. Fin didn't really know why he was surprised; he knew that he should've been happy, seeing that he just protected Leaf from taking a powerful fighting type attack.

"You foolish Chimchar! Since you're asking for it, I'll will take you down first!" growled the Scrafty. The dual dark and fighting type drew back one of its hands, and it began to glow white. It was Brick Break Scrafty was attempting to use, no doubt.

"You won't be able to handle this!" said the Scrafty confidently.

He leapt high into the air and rose his hands above his head. "Get ready to say good night!" Scrafty formed a smile onto his own face.

"You're not hurting him!" declared a voice. A pokemon leapt out from behind the bushes with its tail glowing bright green. The pokemon...it looked very much like Leaf, only longer and with a few extra features.

The glowing tail made fatal contact with the Scrafty's head; it rocketed him right back onto the ground. The collision was so powerful, a crater was formed with Scrafty in the center of it. Also, it was now clear that Scrafty had fainted; the swirling swirls it had in place of its eyes told this.

"Oh no!" gasped Skuntank. He parried Leaf's vines and ran off to his friend in the center of the crater. The Skuntank hauled his friend up onto his back and said to Fin and the others, "We will be back!"

Leaf leapt to the front of Skuntank like an agile ninja. "Oh no you don't! We're going to give you more hell before that!" said Leaf with a devilish smile. Something told Fin that it was going to be extremely brutal. He closed his eyes tightly and heard a loud and sharp cry. "AAAAAHHHHHH!"

* * *

"That was a workout!" said Leaf as she dusted her vines.

"Yeah...don't you think that was a bit too harsh?" asked Fin. He closed his eyes throughout the whole of Leaf's 'workout' and all he heard were screams of agony. It really didn't sound like a workout.

Charcoal joined them. "No. I think that's what that Skuntank deserved," he opined. "After all, he did come with the intention of capturing us."

"True..." said Fin, half agreeing with what his friend just said.

"So anyways...is this cottage really your home?" asked Charcoal as he pointed to the wooden construction. "And who is this pokemon? Why does he look so much like you?" Charcoal then pointed to the other pokemon who was standing around with them.

Leaf just gave Charcoal a look, as if she was saying 'You seriously don't know?'. "He's my grandfather..." she answered. "And he's a Servine. Does that explain?"

"Yeah...I guess..." said Charcoal. "And another question."

Leaf sighed deeply. "Fine then..."

"Was he gone with you as well before we came? We sure didn't see your grandfather this afternoon..."

"No. My grandfather was home all day."

Charcoal's eyes grew wide in surprise. "What?! How could that have been possible? We were here knocking on the door before you came. No one opened it."

"Well that's because my grandfather is deaf..." she replied. "He can't hear anything when his deaf..."

"Oh...that explains it..." said Charcoal as he nodded his head lightly.

"Leaf, we would like to ask you another question if that's fine with you," said Fin.

_What is with all these questions? What? Is this interrogation time or something? _thought Leaf. "Fine then...but this is the last question."

Fin nodded his head in understanding. "Well you see Leaf, we have no where to sleep tonight and we were wondering if we could sleep at your cottage tonight..." Fin really hoped that the Snivy would say yes. He was praying to Arceus with everything he had.

"...no," was Leaf's reply. "I'm sorry but you guys cannot..."

Fin and Charcoal's heads drooped down in disappointment. Now where were the two going to sleep? On a high up tree branch maybe? That certainly wouldn't be comfortable. On the ground maybe? Fin didn't like sleeping on the ground, but it was the only option they had.

The duo lifted their heads up to bid farewell to Leaf and her grandfather, but weirdly saw a small smile on Leaf's face. Now why would she be smiling for?

"I was just kidding. Of course you guys can sleep over at our cottage," spoke the Snivy. "I just wanted to see how you two would react when I say no."

Fin and Charcoal were dumbstruck. They have been fooled by Leaf in the most unexpected way. "But-wha-you-" began Charcoal.

"Like I said. I just wanted to see how the two of you would react if I said no. The way you guys took it was very...amusing..." She gave the duo a wink.

"Now come on grandfather, let's go back inside." She began leading her grandpa back into the cottage. "And you two, aren't you going to come?" Leaf asked without looking back. After sensing that the two wasn't following her, she looked back and saw the hilarious stupefied faces they had on. An amused grin formed on Leaf's face.

* * *

**Feel free to review people :D**


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